South Florida Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Sunday, March 15, 1998 - Page 100
Bobby Fischer: Champ, stubborn fellow
Genius is a starry attribute. But posterity often finds genius easier to bear than its harried contemporaries.
I was a friend and colleague of Bobby Fischer during his rise to the top. We trained together and collaborated on his My 60 Memorable Games which was destined to become a classic yet almost never saw the light of day.
After completing the manuscript, Bobby scratched out all his notes and returned the proofs to Simon & Schuster. Since the games alone were available elsewhere, the company said there was no point in proceeding with the project. He paid back the advance, and the contract was canceled.
A few years later he got a letter from the publisher asking whether they should destroy the plates or ship them somewhere at his expense. Bobby figured he could save money by storing them in his walk-up flat in Brooklyn and asked for my opinion. I warned him that lead plates weigh a ton and might crash through the floor, killing tenets below. It was better, I said, to store them in a warehouse.
This made an impression.
“Well, I guess the world's coming to an end anyway,” he sighed. “Maybe I'll let 'em publish the book.”
At that moment I realized he had suppressed the manuscript because he was afraid of giving away too many secrets. The publisher agreed to go ahead with the book but wanted fresh material, so we restored the notes and added 10 more games. That's how 50 became 60 memorable games when the book appeared in 1969.
I wasn't so lucky in persuading him to defend his title against Anatoly Karpov in 1975. Fans thought he was crazy for spurning millions of dollars to crush the darling of the Kremlin. Diehards blamed it on some kind of commie plot.
Mathematicians proved that his demand for a 10-win match (draws not counting) with him keeping the title on a 9-9 tie gave his challenger a better break than the old 24-game format where Soviet champions had a rematch clause plus draw odds. A psychiatrist opined, “A paramount theme is his refusal to compromise his principles.” A French playwright depicted our hero as “a persecuted poet who defends human dignity.”
Alas, this claptrap only made him more stubborn. “When you were the challenger you didn't want the champ to have any edge,” I argued. “So why are you demanding one now?”
“That's beside the point!” he snapped. “The Russians always made their own rules and got away with it. let's give 'em a dose of their own medicine.”
“But you now have a chance to set a shining example,” I replied. “By quitting you're letting down your fans and handing Russia the title without a fight.”
He said that if he got his way just this once he wouldn't seek any edge in future matches. Trying to reason with him was useless.
Bobby made a brief comeback in 1992 and won $3 million. Today he lives in Budapest and has all but given up the game he loved.
* “My 60 Memorable Games” published in 1969.
The Palm Beach Post, West Palm Beach, Florida, Sunday, December 27, 1998 - Page 598
Although Ewfim Geller never played a match for the world championship, the record of the Ukrainian grandmaster against those of his era who held the title was indeed extraordinary.
Geller, who passed away on November 17 at the age of 73, had a lifetime record (draws not included) of 4-1 against Mikhail Botvinnik, 10-7 against Vassily Smyslov, 4-2 against Tigran Petrosian and 5-3 against Bobby Fischer.
Dead even in 12 games with Mikhail Tal, his only negative result was a 6-9 record against Boris Spassky.
Geller had a deep love for the game and was reportedly happiest when immersed in its study. His capacity to discover new ideas and brilliantly implement them resulted in some remarkably quick wins against the best players of his time.
Because of his ability for original analysis, Geller was chosen to assist Spassky during his historic match with Fischer in 1972.
The onset of World War II delayed Geller's chess career. As a result, he did not attain the title of master until 1946 at the age of 21. But he retained his powers well past his statistical prime. In 1979, at the age of 55, he won the Soviet Championship for the second and last time.
His results against Fischer are eloquent testimony of his powers. During three consecutive tournaments — two of them held in 1967 when Fischer was virtually unbeatable — Geller defeated him in their individual game. The skein was finally broken in a 1970 game, when Fischer achieved victory after a Geller blunder on the 71st move.
In the accompanying box is a devastating win against Botvinnik from a 1966 Belgrade tournament.